This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
Published on September 16, 2019, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to meet EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg, six weeks before the UK is due to leave the EU.
Johnson will enjoy a working lunch with Juncker on Monday, a meeting that has been billed as part of efforts to negotiate an orderly Brexit.
However, Brussels has played down talk of a breakthrough, insisting that Johnson has yet to suggest any 'legally operable' proposal to revise a previous withdrawal accord.
Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier has said he has 'no reason to be optimistic' about the talks, and the European Parliament will vote on a resolution rejecting Johnson's demand that the 'Irish backstop' clause be stripped from the deal.
Johnson insists that this measure has to go if he is to bring the agreement back to the House of Commons, but the accord will also have to win the support of the other 27 EU leaders and the European Parliament if Britain is not to crash out with no deal on October 31.
Johnson has boasted that he would rather be 'dead in a ditch' than ask his European counterparts to postpone Brexit for a third time into next year.
Despite this, Johnson told the Mail on Sunday that he was 'very confident' of getting a new deal before the October 17 summit, citing 'technical talks' on border procedures between his Brexit adviser David Frost and Barnier's team.
